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| Soil test said the soil is low in phosphorous, so I was trying to figure some way to bump up phosphorous organically.
Idea 1 - Bone meal
Idea 2 - Phosphorous rock
Idea 3 - bone char
other ideas? Paul |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Mon, Apr 2, 12 at 20:27
| Who did your soil test? Have you been on an organic program before? If so, has your lawn looked okay? |
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| Soil test done by A&L Great Lakes Agricultural Lab. House was purchased 2 years ago. I have no idea what the previous owner did, but the year after, 1/8 of the lawn died from what appears to be grubs. The lawn has been reseeded and looks fine except for squirrel damage. Here's my program so far, in spring I lay down corn gluten whenever the forsythia blooms, in fall I add ringer restore and top dress with compost. I want to see if I can substitute compost, because we need a lot of compost to top dress. Paul |
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| You're experiencing one of the natural reactions to moving to organics. You want to do the "natural products" angle, but you find out that the products available are not as "dense" in nutrients or as quickly available as the synthetic stuff. You have to get over it to make the adjustment - the very reason that synthetics came to be was to make products that were denser and quicker-acting. You can't have it both ways. |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Mon, Apr 2, 12 at 23:42
| FWIW the phosphorous in those nasty ole chemical fertilizers is made from Rock Phosphate. It is changed to Phosphoric acid so it is water soluble and taken into the soil and plant roots. You can use Rock Phosphate but it takes a very long time (years) for nature to change it to Phosphoric acid so it can water soluble and taken up by roots. Same thing with bone meal except the transformation to an acid is much shorter period of time like 3 to 4 months. |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Mon, Apr 2, 12 at 23:49
| You want pure organic phosphorous right. Go down to the nearest military ammunition depot and get a truck load of phosphorous grenades or artillery shells. Open them up and spread it on you lawn. Don't worry about the gun powder ,it is great for lawn with all the nitrogen and potassium in it. At night you will the prettiest lawn as it illuminates itself in the dark. |
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| Keep in mind that if it takes several years, that's fine too. The grass grows well enough without phosphorous. The soil is alkaline, so I am thinking I need soft rock phosphate. My plant guy warn me not to use bone meal if I don't want my daughter to crawl through the bone bits. Paul |
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| If you are going organic, I wouldn't mess with any of this. Just start using any of the bulk fertilizers like cornmeal, alfalfa etc. The chemical breakdown of those is closer to 4-1-2 than the synthetic 30-1-2. |
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| Bill, Which part of the plan should I not be doing? Adding the phosphate? I was thinking of not doing top dressing any more (because I don't like shoving several cubic yard of compost by hand :-p) thinking that ringer restore is probably doing the job. Paul |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Tue, Apr 3, 12 at 21:01
| I agree with Bill. If you are going organic throw away the soil test results and just use SBM or CGM and forget about it. |
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| Urr.. This may be a dumb question, but what is SBM and CGM? Paul |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Wed, Apr 4, 12 at 0:21
| I'm glad you guys suggested abandoning the search for a specific chemical. The modern organic program is pretty much self sustaining. A better soil test might be able to tune up your micronutrients, but the macro nutrients come along with normal organic fertilizer. SBM = soy bean meal That was not a dumb question, but it did reveal your level of understanding. Go to the Organic Gardening forum at GardenWeb and find the FAQ section. Scroll to the bottom of the list for the Organic Lawn Care FAQ. What is different about the newer approach is you don't use compost except for special occasions. You don't have a special occasion. You can use SBM, CGM, or even UCG (used coffee grounds) for a fertilizer. The application rate for any of the organic grain based fertilizers is 20-30 pounds per 1,000 square feet. There are differences among them. CGM has the highest amount of protein in it and can be used at a lower number to get good results. Coffee has the lowest amount of protein and should be used at a higher amount. In the FAQ I talked mostly about using ordinary corn meal. That was then, this is now. Corn prices have skyrocketed. Nowadays SBM is a better deal. Another good deal is alfalfa pellets (rabbit or chinchilla food). You can find these products at any feed store for about 1/6 the cost of regular organic fertilizer. All this will be much cheaper than even one app of compost. If you want faster soil improvement with organics, then fertilize on a monthly basis. That is something you cannot do with chemical ferts. |
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